Black Swans by Eve Babitz
If Joan Didion and Carrie Bradshaw had a literary love child it would have been Eve Babitz. Babitz was the LA It Girl of the 1970s. She first came onto the scene in 1963 when Julian Wasser photographed her playing a nude game of chess with Marcel Duchamp. She made album covers for some very famous bands (Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds) and dated some very famous men (Jim Morrison, Steve Martin, Harrison Ford). Eve went on to become a writer. She wrote for Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, and Vogue, and published a number of books.
Recently, the Babitz obsession has made a resurgence, as six of her books have been issued for reprinting. In Black Swans, a collection of nine stories, Babitz takes the reader into LA in the 1980s and 90s. Her commentary on the city’s culture and the sub-par men she’s sleeping with will make you smile. Her analysis of identity and happiness will make you sorry you underestimated her.
